We all seek the golden thread of life - that purpose that we are about and the happiness that comes from it. Threads provide patterns, texture, and what Dr. Jeff Howard of Efficacy, Inc. used to call the 'hard clean line" for your company, product, or service to follow. Although ever-changing, it is your center and reference point in any space, time continuum or business cycle.
Threads are the 3rd Dimension of our research approach. We follow the threads across markets and business sectors and products and service categories into trend patterns that tie together. Take spirituality for example, what product category would it most likely show up in? What role does emotion play in the auto; how do the social patterns of diverse groups play into what and how they watch cable television in different ways than the mainstream and why? All these are examples of the threads we have found and follow across the 4 dimensions of our research in the urbnanmarketplace.
Analytical
Report Threads uses quantitative methods that are applied to a variety of product and service categories, e.g. Auto, Banking and Financial Services, Beverage, Cable/Satellite, Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, Travel, etc. Statistical methods range from simple frequencies to multivariate analyses, such as factor, cluster, discriminant, and regression. Data utilized can be acquired from secondary or primary research depending on the scope, available sources and product or service categories.
The thread or "hard-clean line" is often illuminated in urban marketplace as urban signs that indicates a market shift that is further supported by market forces. Threads in the market should have a measurable result and even a texture if you will. They can also come directly from data and quantitative research, but then you can often get stuck along a linear footprint not knowing which thread is true to the purpose you seek, or attempting to ascertain which direction the thread came from or is heading. Not to say that you do not get results, but not deep ones or ones that lead to very strategic and a very resonate insight.
We often term this lack of research resonance as 'Hamster Research', because like hamsters that keep going around and around -- you get a lot of exercise, but you don't really get anywhere. Finding the thread in measurable terms and with appropriate statistical measures can be made more accurate and fluid using multidimensional approaches and research methods. We very often find interesting threads of data indicating this or that, but we will often times wait until we receive a sign, a personal voice or market force that the thread ties together with.